organism Posted April 28, 2007 Share Posted April 28, 2007 Zoanthid Eating Nudibranchs vs Salifert’s Flatworm Exit BETTER PICTURES COMING SOON! I had initially set out to remove a large mass of flatworms that were on a colony of zoanthids, and placed 8 drops of Salifert’s Flatworm Exit (FWE) into 3 gallons of tank water in a bucket. After 10 minutes, I removed the zoanthids colony, and noted that all of the flatworms were dead at the bottom of the bucket. I also noticed, however, that there were a few zoanthids eating nudibranchs that were also at the bottom of the bucket, whether alive or dead it was hard to tell. Immediately I collected some nudis from a shipment of Solomon Zoanthids that was still acclimating and waiting to be dipped in iodine and freshwater, as usual. The nudis were placed into two cups, a test group and a control group. Test group Control group Each cup had 2 cups of tank water. Into one cup, there were added 4 drops of FWE, nothing was added into the control group. In 30 seconds, one of the nudis in the test cup was falling from the side of the cup. In 45 seconds it looked like this. In 60 seconds The results were fast, effective, and much, much less stressful for the zoanthids colonies than the freshwater iodine dip. The control group showed no ill effects during this time. Obviously, the control group wasn’t going anywhere, so 4 drops were added since they were in better locations for pictures. In 30 seconds stress sets in In 45 seconds, lesions appear on the side of the nudi In 60 seconds the lesion spreads One of the nudis appendages falls off at 80 seconds 90 seconds it’s falling to pieces In two minutes, two minutes! Mwahahahahahahhaha! While not provenly effective against nudi eating spiders (someone please try that one and let me know), this treatment certainly seems to work wonders against zoanthid eating nudibranchs, and best of all it’s pretty reef safe! This means that if you have an infestation in your entire tank, you can now treat with a heavy dose of FWE and get all of the nudis, then retreat every two weeks to deal with the newly hatched eggs. As always, care is required however, since 4 drops per 2-4 cups is nearly 4 times the recommended dosage, and is much easier (and cheaper) to carry out in a bucket than in an entire system. Since this dipping system works with your regular tank water, you can leave the colonies in the bucket for nearly 30 minutes with no ill effects, then place them into a bucket of only tank water for 10-30 minutes in order to remove any FWE that may still be on the colony, and place back into the tank or quarantine system. Link to comment
organism Posted April 28, 2007 Author Share Posted April 28, 2007 lol, wow, I misspelled pictorial in the title, can one of the mods fix that? Link to comment
quy_nquyen Posted April 28, 2007 Share Posted April 28, 2007 awesome! to edit the title you can just go to your first post in this thread, hit edit, full edit and you should be able to edit the title edit: now that's a lot of edits =] Link to comment
Kool-cat Posted April 28, 2007 Share Posted April 28, 2007 Now thats cool. Thanks for sharing. Link to comment
Phixion Posted April 30, 2007 Share Posted April 30, 2007 Good stuff Miguel!! I just added Tech-D to my arsenal per your recommendation when I was there with Israel a couple weekends ago. Maybe I should add eXit to my arsenal as well?? I ysed to have flatworms on some of my palys, but I haven't seen any in a while, even now 3 weeks after my 6line went MIA on me, it didn't seem to eat them anyways, not that I ever saw at least. Link to comment
Josza Posted April 30, 2007 Share Posted April 30, 2007 Thank you very much for sharing your findings. Link to comment
ninjafish Posted August 27, 2007 Share Posted August 27, 2007 Thanks to everyone for the awesome info. And to the Propagator for his Furan 2 directions in another thread. I just finished placing all my zoos in freshwater for 30mins (I brought the temp of the FW up to the same as my tank first). I also added FWE to the bath just to be safe. There were a whole bunch of dead nudis left in the bottom of the bucket; hopefully that will do the trick. Is there anyone who is familiar with the life-cycle of nudibranchs? It might help to time applications. For example, if I missed some egg sacks, and assuming that they hatched as soon as I put the zoos back in the tank, how long do I have before they are mature enough to lay their own eggs (ie, perform the second treatment before that time). I would also have to consider the possibility that some nudis layed their eggs right before I nuked them, if that's the case, how long until those eggs hatch (ie, perform the third treatment after that). That way you could kill all the nudis that were born early and all the nudis that were born late, without any of them having the chance to lay eggs of their own. Just a thought. Thanks, _ Chad Link to comment
organism Posted August 29, 2007 Author Share Posted August 29, 2007 if you dip them every week for 3 weeks they should be fine, their eggs typically take 1-2 weeks to hatch as far as I know Link to comment
organism Posted June 5, 2008 Author Share Posted June 5, 2008 bump because I still see tons of threads asking how to get rid of zoo nudis Link to comment
Turkey Baster Posted June 5, 2008 Share Posted June 5, 2008 Great information. I may try this on my Zoa's, I've been losing some colonies slowly and have yet to find the source of death. Link to comment
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